California Attorney General’s Legal Advisory on the Application of Existing California Laws to Artificial Intelligence

• Authority: California
• Parent authority: State governments
• Jurisdiction: United States
• Collections: U.S. state and local documents
• Most recent activity: Enacted
• Most recent activity date: 2025-01-01

Risk subdomain coverage

Good coverage — Comprehensive governance measures or mitigations with clear procedures relating to the risk subdomain are explicitly described.

• Unfair discrimination and misrepresentation
• Exposure to toxic content
• Compromise of privacy
• False or misleading information
• Pollution of information ecosystem
• Disinformation, surveillance, and influence at scale
• Fraud, scams, and targeted manipulation
• Economic and cultural devaluation of human effort
• Lack of transparency or interpretability

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the risk subdomain are described.

• Unequal performance across groups
• AI system security vulnerabilities
• Overreliance and unsafe use
• Increased inequality and decline in employment
• Environmental harm
• Lack of capability or robustness

All other risk subdomains had no coverage in this document.

Risk Coverage Summary

The document has good coverage of approximately 12-14 subdomains, with strong focus on discrimination and toxicity (1.1, 1.2, 1.3), privacy and security (2.1, 2.2), misinformation (3.1, 3.2), malicious actors (4.1, 4.2, 4.3), human-computer interaction (5.1), socioeconomic impacts (6.2, 6.3), and system safety failures (7.3, 7.4). Coverage is concentrated in consumer protection, civil rights, privacy, and AI safety domains.

Sector coverage

Good coverage — Comprehensive governance measures or mitigations with clear procedures relating to the sector are explicitly described.

• Information
• Finance & Insurance
• Educational Services
• Health Care & Social Assistance
• Arts, Entertainment & Recreation
• Public Administration (excl. National Security)

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the sector are described.

• Trade, Transportation & Utilities
• Real Estate, Rental & Leasing
• Scientific Research & Development Services

All other sectors had no coverage in this document.

Sectors Summary

The document governs AI use across multiple sectors with explicit coverage of Information (social media platforms, telecommunications), Finance and Insurance (credit decisions, insurance claims), Health Care and Social Assistance (medical diagnoses, health insurance), Educational Services (K-12 educational technology), and Public Administration (election systems, government use of AI). Additional sectors receive minimal coverage through examples of AI applications.

Legislative Status

Soft Law

Legislative Status Summary

This is a legal advisory document that provides guidance on how existing California laws apply to AI, rather than creating new binding legal obligations. It uses predominantly advisory language ('should', 'must ensure', 'should be aware') and serves to inform entities about their existing legal obligations under various California statutes.

Actors

Proposer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: California Attorney General's Office (AGO)
• Summary: The document is explicitly issued by the California Attorney General's Office to provide guidance on AI compliance with California law.

Target

• Entity Types: AI_Developer, AI_Deployer, AI_User
• Entities: consumers; entities that develop, sell, and use artificial intelligence; businesses; nonprofits; government
• Summary: The advisory explicitly targets AI developers, businesses that use AI, and consumers, providing guidance on their rights and obligations under California law.

Enforcer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: California Attorney General's Office; courts; regulatory agencies referenced in various statutes
• Summary: While the advisory itself does not create enforcement mechanisms, it references existing enforcement under California statutes. The Attorney General's Office has enforcement authority under many of the referenced laws (UCL, CCPA, etc.).

Monitor

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: California Attorney General's Office; Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
• Summary: The document references monitoring and oversight responsibilities under various California statutes, though the advisory itself does not establish new monitoring mechanisms.

AI Lifecycle Stages

Lifecycle stages covered by the documents, as defined in the OECD Framework for the Classification of AI Systems

• Plan and Design
• Collect and Process Data
• Build and Use Model
• Verify and Validate
• Deploy
• Operate and Monitor

AI Lifecycle Summary

The document addresses multiple lifecycle stages with primary focus on deployment and operation/monitoring. It covers design considerations through civil rights and consumer protection requirements, data collection through privacy laws, model development through training data disclosure requirements, validation through testing requirements, deployment through various disclosure and authorization requirements, and ongoing monitoring through reporting and oversight mechanisms.

Technical Scope

Terms relating to technical scope that are mentioned or implicitly referenced in the document

• AI Models
• AI Systems
• Generative AI

Technical Scope Summary

The document broadly refers to 'artificial intelligence' and 'AI systems' throughout, providing a definition that encompasses machine-based systems that make predictions, recommendations or decisions. It does not specifically distinguish between frontier AI, general purpose AI, or task-specific AI, nor does it mention foundation models, compute thresholds, or open-weight models. It does reference generative AI in the context of content generation and deepfakes.